The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus for forming an image, such as a digital copying machine, which is equipped with a sorter for automatically sorting a plurality of copy sets.
In a conventional digital copying machine having a sorter for automatically sorting a plurality of copy sets, when a plurality of copy sets are to be obtained by taking a plurality of copies of each of a plurality of originals, copy sheets corresponding to each of the originals are distributed to a plurality of bins of the sorter. Thereby, one copy set is obtained in each of the bins.
In a digital copying machine having such a sorter for sorting plural copy sets, where a paper jam (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cjamxe2x80x9d) of a copy sheet has occurred in the machine body during the operation of copying plural copy sets and the copying operation is to be restarted after eliminating the jam, the user needs to visually confirm the sorted copy sheets and determine to which copy sheet in the order of copy sheets the copying operation should be returned. Alternatively, all the copy sheets sorted during the operation for copying plural copy sets are discarded and the copying operation is restarted from the beginning.
However, in the sorting of copy sheets after elimination of jam, the user may be confused at confirming the number of copy sheets, by which the copying operation is to go back. Moreover, if all the copy sheets sorted during the operation for copying plural copy sets are discarded and the copying operation is restarted from the beginning, normally formed copy sheets, too, are discarded and many sheets are wasted.
The object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus and an image forming method capable of sorting copy sheets without causing confusion to the user or wasting copy sheets.
In order to achieve the above object, there is provided an image forming apparatus for forming images on paper sheets, which has a sorter for sorting paper sheets with images onto a plurality of bins, the apparatus comprising: an alarming/stopping section for indicating occurrence of a jam and stopping an image forming operation of the image forming apparatus when the jam is detected during the image forming operation; a first checking section for determining, when a process for dealing with the jam indicated by the alarming/stopping section is completed and a restart of the image forming operation is instructed, whether an operation for forming a plurality of copy sets by making a plurality of copies of each of a plurality of originals in a predetermined order is set; a second checking section for determining, when the first checking section has determined that the operation for forming a plurality of copy sets by making a plurality of copies of each of a plurality of originals is set, whether there is an original a preset number of copies of which have not been made; a first control section for removing, when the second checking section has determined that there is an original a preset number of copies of which have not been made, copy sheets which are obtained by copying the original and are sorted onto the plural bins; and a second control section for restarting, after the first control section has removed the copy sheets of the original, the image forming operation from copying of the original in the predetermined order of the plural originals.
According to the present invention, there is also provided an image forming method for forming images on paper sheets, using a sorter for sorting paper sheets with images onto a plurality of bins, the method comprising: a first step of indicating occurrence of a jam and stopping an image forming operation of the image forming apparatus when the jam is detected during the image forming operation; a second step of determining, when a process for dealing with the jam indicated in the first step is completed and a restart of the image forming operation is instructed, whether an operation for forming a plurality of copy sets by making a plurality of copies of each of a plurality of originals in a predetermined order is set; a third step of determining, when the first step has determined that the operation for forming a plurality of copy sets by making a plurality of copies of each of a plurality of originals is set, whether there is an original a preset number of copies of which have not been made; a fourth step of removing, when the third step has determined that there is an original a preset number of copies of which have not been made, copy sheets which are obtained by copying the original and are sorted onto the plural bins; and a fifth step of restarting, after the copy sheets of the original have been removed in the fourth step, the image forming operation from copying of the original in the predetermined order of the plural originals.